Studies in Astrology
by
Elman Bacher
Volume I
Chapter VI
Venus: Principle of Perfected Manifestation
Venus, feminine and magnetic, is the consciousness of
harmony resulting from the alchemy of emotional transmutations.
Harmony may be defined as the "consciousness of
fulfilled union"--the antithesis of Ego-separateness. Through primitive Mars,
as individuals, we live in, and for, self; Mars, regenerate, is that
expression of self which is based on the courage of individual integrity. A
human being cannot "give to others" if he has not established an awareness of
what and who he is within, an awareness of his potentialities and the
determination to fulfill them. This Mars urge toward self-maintenance is the
necessary stage by which the Ego identifies itself with the streams of life
through "projection" and the resultant karma. Each of us has one soul body to
create; we cannot create it for another and no one can create it for us. Every
one of us has--in each incarnation--at least one phase of the soul body to
fulfill; we cannot fulfill another's and no one can fulfill ours. That, in
essence, is the purpose of the Mars vibration--awareness of individuality.
However, we find that experiences are the
objectifications of our own inner states which are "ignited" by our
contacts with other people. When the Mars vibration tends to
predominate, we are urged to use our self-awareness to interfere in another's
life, to push him around, to subjugate him for our own purposes. This is Mars
as a disrupter of relationship; fulfilled relationship is self-expression that
contributes to another's good at the same time. The Venus vibration is our
capacity to act--to draw to ourselves--in terms of harmonious interchange with
other people, in cooperation and assistance, with good will and constructive
purposes. In this way our projections are fruitful and mutuality of
development is assured. The streams of experience are fed and progressively
sustained.
The title-word "manifestation" may be considered from
two approaches. Saturn is Manifestation as physical form, the objectification
of Spirit. In relationship processes, Saturn is seen to be "responsibility."
There is a heavy, earth-bound, condensed quality about responsibility that
perfectly reflects Saturn's essential nature.
It has been observed, and psychologically proved, that
the impulse of love provides the most satisfactory basis for the fulfillments
of obligations and responsibilities. When we love, we find resources of
greater courage, and deeper faith, the expressions which tend to "lighten the
burden." Moreover, fulfillment is made much more completely and satisfactorily
when a loving, happy, and enthusiastic attitude forms the basis of effort.
Thus, we derive our title--the Venusian consciousness as the basis of
perfecting the body of relationship. Saturn's exaltation in Venus'
sign, Libra, is the astrological correlative. Further, the experience of
relationship (Venus) automatically implies the responsibility (Saturn) of
fulfillment.>
We are told that "Uranus is the higher octave of
Venus." The emotional triad is comprised of Mars, Venus, and Uranus. While
Mars is the individualistic, male projection, and Venus symbolizes his
transmutation and refinement through relationship, Uranus is the "fusion" of
the two within the individual. Thus the higher vibratory frequency of Uranus
is the blend of masculine and feminine polarities which is known as the
"hermetic marriage," and the creative expression of this vibration manifests
its fulfillment without the necessity of a partner. We can see, from the study
of this process, that Uranus represents the expression of supreme union
which is not dependent upon the illusions of emotional relationships; for in
relationship, the crisscross of male-female interchange is always evident. The
polarities, fused, permit the person to create from his own center, on a
higher level of emotional consciousness than either Mars or Venus can achieve
singly, or in interchange with each other through two different people. Venus
in Uranus' sign, Aquarius, is a transcendent expression of love based on
detachment and freedom.
Venus is in its fall in the sign Virgo. Virgo is
mental, analytical, and critical. When you analyze, you pull a thing to pieces
to observe the separate parts. This, in the sphere of Venus experience, makes
for emphasis on things. Affection is expressed in terms of "right and
wrong," "duty," and "fitness," in the superficial sense. Venus in Virgo is
seen to be >love as "something to be done" rather than as a source of life-
giving and enriching experience which refreshes the heart and illuminates the
mind.
An extended expression of Venus in Virgo may be
described as love of one's work, but in lesser phases, or in domestic
experience generally, it seems to show as a preoccupation with the practical
matters of daily living: a clean, well-ordered home, a talent for good
cooking, and the making of lovely things. The redemption of Venus in Virgo
will be found in the establishment of harmonious (beautiful) attitudes toward
other people. A critical talent is conveyed by Virgo, but Venus urges the
expression of tact and courtesy; sympathetic understanding must take
the place of spotting--and exposing--the other fellow's faults. A clean,
orderly home is a fine and wonderful thing, but a home that also contains a
joyous, comfortable, and livable vibration is representative of fulfilled
heart experience, the cultivation of Venus.
Venus, in any horoscope, is the symbol of the esthetic
faculty as well as of the love potential. Rhythm, balance, proportion, and
taste are just as evident in cultivated relationships as they are in the
qualities of things which we call beautiful.
Venus is the instinctive esthetic response--
the result of inner refinement following processes of emotional
transmutations. She is thus seen to be our innate ability to perceive and
appreciate color, line, modulation, and proportion. She is cultivated
taste--the discriminating evaluation.
Neptune, on the other hand, is our response to
contrived beauty--in other words, our capacity for art response.
Many people have a keen response to the beauties of Nature and of other
people, but, lacking Neptune, they cannot respond to the abstract or symbolic
expressions of art forms. >Then, there are those who possess a high degree of
development--a great talent or perhaps even genius along the lines of some
particular art who are unappreciative of beauty in other forms and may
demonstrate their "lack of Venus" by uncouthness of personal appearance,
unsociability, and deficiency of emotional development and relationship
cultivation.
Venus gives the lovely complexion, or the graceful,
well-proportioned body, or the expressive voice that people are born with--
they are naturally beautiful. Neptune is the clever use of cosmetics
which creates the illusion of beauty; the dancing and singing lessons
by which people contrive a greater degree of beauty than they possess
naturally. Venus is the instinctive good taste by which a woman adorns herself
according to her own personal requirements; the selection of clothes
which, by design and color, unify her appearance--she and her clothes
are one harmonious thing. Neptune is fashion, vogue, and artifice by which
people of unindividual taste follow a contrived, artificial pattern. Being
fashionable may be--but often isn't--synonymous with being in good taste.
Neptune is art--in whatever form, the
contrivance of a symbol to express an esthetic idea or ideal. Of all the forms
of art, instrumental music and drama are particularly--and peculiarly--
Neptunian. The special qualities of Venus are evidenced in the arts of Dance
and Song. This statement is made in reference to the "natural basis" of these
two arts; both are highly cultivated manifestations of remarkably developed
bodily functions. Neptune and Venus, in some combination or relationship, are
necessary for the astrological indications of artistic talent. Another planet
may indicate a special qualification, but these two form the "esthetic basis."
In the two signs Libra and Pisces, Venus finds the
purest expressions of her essential nature; Libra, the seventh house sign, is
the symbol of relationship, and Pisces is the essence of spiritualized love.
In Taurus, Venus finds a strong expression of her emotional potentiality, but
in more earthy terms. In Gemini and Aquarius she blends with the relationship
urges of fraternal and friendship love. In Sagittarius, combining with the
Jupiter-ninth-house quality, she is considered very favorable, since an
"overtone" of spirituality and idealism is implied. In Cancer she is home
loving and motherly, keenly responsive to the needs of loved ones. In Leo she
glows warmly and dramatically--Venus in Leo is the arch symbol of romantic
love. In Scorpio she is intensely magnetic, the Mars vibration is indicative
of love as sex expression. However, this position of Venus is considered
unfavorable--for her--because "partnership is threatened by personal desire,"
and from a physiological standpoint, in reference to the feminine physical
organism, afflictions to Venus in Scorpio can threaten fulfillments in sex
exchange. However, in higher types, this position of Venus can promise the
potential for great transmutations of emotion through consecrated devotion--it
can be very spiritual. In Capricorn, as in Virgo, material or practical
considerations seem to predominate. An afflicted Venus in Capricorn is
relationship--or love, or its pretense--as a furtherance of ambition and
position. This depletion of Venus is indicative of consummate selfishness--in
the cold, calculating sense of the word. In Aries, Venus is "love as self-
expression"--carrying out the egoistic, dynamic influence of Mars.
The scope of Venus potential in a chart will be found
by determining the harmonious aspects as well as the planets disposited by
Venus. The latter phrase is important because Venus herself may be unaspected
or weak by position or afflicted by aspect; but planets in Taurus and/or Libra
are "expressing through Venus" and extend her influence into the chart. Since
Venus is passive--the result of transmutative processes--she is afflicted--she
does not afflict another planet. Squares and oppositions to Venus--or malefic
oonjunctions, represent (1) the possibilities of frustration of the urge to
union and the expression of love; (2) states of consciousness that are
inhibitive to the development of the esthetic and social urges. Venus
sextiling an otherwise afflicted planet shows the need for using Venus as an
alchemical agency to redeem the other planet from its affliction. Trines to
Venus represent flowerings of the soul, the cultivation of inner graces of
mind and emotion, the capacities for beautiful and joyous living.
When Venus is unaspected, we must regard her house
position as the focal point of the social urge; her sign position indicates
the esoteric potential of the love nature. We can interpret this pattern as
representing an incarnation in which alchemical preparation is being made for
the future. Though Venus, in this case, gives little "promise of reward" in
this life, yet if reaction patterns are established by which self-isolative
impulses are transmuted into giving, or devotion to an ideal or work or the
cultivation of sympathetic understanding, the process will build in a Venus
return in the future. The person with an unaspected Venus may possess a
disposition that is not particularly happy or sociable, but if he does
something, now and then, to make someone else happy or encouraged, he then
expresses energy in terms of Venus--an emanation of good-will which must,
inevitably, reap its reward.
Venus strong by influence but afflicted by aspects is
"urge without cultivation;" the gregarious man who can't distinguish friends
from acquaintances; the woman who just loves beautiful colors--she wears a red
hat, a purple coat, a yellow dress, and pink shoes; the "artist" who will sing
at the slightest provocation--his voice distresses all who hear him; the woman
who is addicted to collecting "nice things"--her home is a jungle of
incoherent bric-a-brac. These are cartoon-like examples of Venus being spilled
out all over the place. These persons display a decided lack of discriminative
selection or a sense of the fitness of things. Venus is always the "nicest way
of doing anything."
At this point we suggest a synthesis of Venus with
the three "primitives"--Mars, Moon, and Saturn. These three form the
foundations of experience on the emotional, mental, and physical planes and
their relationship with Venus gives us the how and why of her scope and
influence in the chart.
Mars-Venus: This is the pattern of "desire love;" the
sex impulse and its refinement through union; the assertiveness of self and
its completion through relationship; the projection of dynamic urge and its
perfected fulfillment; in martial experience--fulfilled matehood through the
integration of male and female polarities. Regardless of the physical sex of
the person, the predominance of either Mars or Venus in the chart indicates
the predominant polarity tendency. If both are deficient the emotional
potentials are low, sexuality lacks fire, and the purely mental or the purely
physical expressions of life will predominate in the person's experience. If
Mars afflicts Venus, it is necessary to compare carefully the scope of each.
Mars strong, Venus weak: predominance of masculinity, dynamic and self-
assertive urges and sex desires; Mars weak, Venus strong: femininity
predominates, the personality lacks thrust and zest; esthetic response may be
highly developed but there is little urge toward work or effort; this pattern
is not favorable for men, since the feminine element predominates over the
masculine. Mars sextile or trine Venus: promise of sexual mutuality and
fulfilled love impulses; a healthy, integrated emotional nature; capacity to
enjoy activity and to work cooperatively; in the charts of either men or women
this aspect is favorable, since it promises mutuality between the masculine
and feminine phases of personality and relationship.
Moon-Venus: This is the feminine basis of the
horoscope. Woman as mother and as mate; the latent feminine polarity in men,
indicative of their relationships and experiences with women, generally.
Afflictions between Moon and Venus in a woman's chart are indicative of
physiological inharmonies, possible frustrations of maternal and wifely
impulses; unfulfillments of the affectional capacities. In a man's chart, Moon
afflicting Venus is indicative of his feminine karma, inharmonies of
relationship with mother, wife and/or female associates. This is the man who
is unlearned in the ways of woman-kind--his feminine patterns are in disorder,
unregenerate, and promising of disappointment and friction; through "heart
ignorance" he makes painful karma for the future. This man needs to cultivate
understanding and sympathy; until he does, his consciousness remains, to a
degree, brute-like, particularly if his Mars and Saturn are strong, regardless
of aspects.
Saturn-Venus: Inharmoniously, this is joy sacrificed
to responsibility, love dominated by duty, or love depleted by introversion,
ignorance, or fear; enforced discipline of the esthetic or love impulses as a
karmic return from past excesses; Venus otherwise well-aspected and strong,
the square from Saturn may indicate limitation of scope for the perfection of
quality. Harmoniously aspected Saturn-Venus is expression of love
through responsibility; fulfillment of responsibilities is a channel of
flowering of the love capacities; love is here seen to be an anchor, an agency
of beneficial restraint and direction of energy and work. This is "love which
must be made manifest"--the dream must be actually lived. Constancy and
fidelity are keywords of this aspect--love goes deep and lasts long. Union
serves to stimulate practical talents and the experience of loving forms a
solid basis for constructive well-rounded-out living.